Goblin
by mpenguin15
Summary: Sarah was wished away as a little girl and had been transformed into a Goblin. Little did anyone know, the spell doesn't really have a strong grip on her so what happens when Sarah transforms back into a human? AU and, of course, JxS pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**none of the character from the movie are mine so I don't own them!**

* * *

**Chapter One:**

"Mimion? Mimion? Mimion? Where's are yous?" Fifo called out in his singsong way as he tumbled along the streets calling out for the girl goblin.

Mimion tried her best to stifle her giggles, but was failing horrifically at that to the great displeasure of her friend sitting next to her.

"Mimion, would you shut up?" Ravie hissed, gently hitting her best friend's arm.

"I can't!" She giggled, "Fifo is so stupid some times. Doesn't it look like he drank too much wine?"

Looking down, Ravie saw that, indeed, Fifo's crisscrossed way of walking did strike the close resemblance of a drunkard.

Quickly shaking her giggles away, however, Ravie then told her friend, "This is your training, remember? If you giggle like this now, you'll definitely giggle when you play tricks on humans."

"Hehe, what's so wrongs with tat?" Mimion giggled once more.

"Because thens the humans will find you." A voice suddenly said behind them, causing both girl goblins to yelped slightly and whip around. "Boy, you two sures as loud as clucking chickens." Copperpot laughed as he shoved his way in between them

"Copperpot, what's you doing here?" Mimion hissed, her serious mode suddenly on, "Aren't you suppose to be in the castle? Doesn't Kingy get mad when you ain't there when you gotta be?"

"He don't notice." Copperpot said.

"Yeah, he's never in the kitchens, just in his study. And besides, we all look the same to him." Ravie agreed as she picked up a rotten tomato and aimed it at Fifo's head.

It landed with a sickening splatter exactly where she had wanted it to go, on the very top of his head. Turning around angrily, his three friends fell over with laughter as they saw the yellowish red juice trickle down his face and ears.

"You ain't very nice!" Fifo growled as he marched his way over to them, not bothering to remove the tomato from his head.

That, however, did not help his case of making his friends feel guilty. They continued to laugh until Copperpot, who had been on his side laughing, suddenly rolled off the roof of the small house of which they were sitting upon and landed with a boom on the alley floor. Quickly scrambling down, the two girl goblins raced over to help Fifo pull the very large Copperpot back onto his feet.

"Yous deserves it." Fifo growled, trying to wipe the tomato out of the top of his tiny black top hat.

"It was all just fun and games." Ravie defended.

"Anyway, what is it that yous want?" Mimion asked, cutting in before Fifo could stir up an argument.

"Julius wants to sees us!" Fifo said in his brisk army voice, "He says its something about new rules…"

"You could have just said that before!" Mimion exclaimed, her dark brown face suddenly became strangely pale with fright.

"Well's yous were hiding!" Fifo remarked.

"Come on! Let's gets going!" Mimion cried out, grabbing Fifo on the arm and pulling him towards the exit.

"Ow! Wait a min- Mimion!-" And the rest of his grumbling faded as they slipped into the crooked streets of the Goblin City.

"Comes, we better go too." Copperpot said with a sigh, and Ravie nodded her head and skipped to catch up to him.

As they wandered the crooked streets, seeing a strange blast of wine from a door way or a chicken jump down in fright every now and then, Ravie eventually asked, "How's the kitchens?"

"Good!" He exclaimed, his heavy footsteps weighing him down so Ravie had to go half her normal pace, "Good foods and plenty of its. Hows the Library?"

"Alright," Ravie said with a sigh, "Its just, Marcus won't let me read the books anymore."

"Why?" Copperpot asked bewildered.

"Cause he says I don't need to. He says it's a waste of my time."

"But he reads all the time!"

"I know." Ravie growled, "But he reads document and papers for the King, I, on the other hand, just read history and fiction books."

"Aw, that a shame." Copperpot said, shaking his fat squashed face, "Its good you know how to read though, not many of us do…"

"I can teach you." She offered but he just refused

"No, I don't needs to." He told her, "I belong in the kitchen, and I like the kitchen. And in the kitchen, you have no need to read."

"Aye," Ravie sighed, "And you're lucky that you're in the kitchen. It's so much more relaxing there; with no one breathing down your neck."

"Marcus breaths downs yours?"

"Yep, all the time."

"Why?"

"Doesn't like me."

"Why?"

"Cause I'm too smart."

"Shouldn't he like you for that?"

"I don't know…" Ravie said pondering that over.

"Well, as I sees it," Copperpot said, puffing himself up as he always did when he was bestowing advice, "is that, if you want him to like you, just suck up to him."

"You think that'll work?"

"Doesn't it almost always work?"

"I don't think for this it will."

"Why? Just start today and sees hows it goes."

"Eh, I think it might be a little to late to start today."

"Why?"

"I was supposed to be in the library two hours and twenty minutes ago."

"Ravie"! Copperpot explained his green face suddenly turned the color of sour milk. "Go! Runs!"

"No, I'm alright, I don't wanna-"

But what she was going to say next, she never finished, for Copperpot shoved her ahead, making her race off with a gleeful grin on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

The late morning sunlight slid through the panels of the dirty windows and spilled itself onto the rugged carpet of the Royal Study. Books crammed the handsome mahogany bookcases and a cobblestone fireplace resided at the left wall with soot and ashes laying there as a memorial for a fire that had burned there the following night. A beautiful desk, which matched the same style as the bookcases, stood towards the back of the room with a Fae sitting right behind it.

The Goblin King had placed his feet on top of the table, tapping them every so often in a rhythm. He twirled his quill pen absentmindedly in his right hand as he looked at the paper he held in his left, his eyes glazing at the paper before him.

_Damn it_! He thought viciously as he realized that he had been reading and rereading the same sentence for the fifteenth time now and had come no closer to actually comprehending it. _Why must they always put so much worthless uninformative crap in here_? He thought, rolling his eyes and deciding to sign the damn thing anyways

With a crooked grin he placed the paper down on the large stack of finished papers to his left. But, before he could even crack his knuckles and do the stretch he always did when finishing his work, Marcus barged into the room, hidden by the humongous stack of papers he was carrying.

"You got to be joking." Jareth growled, whipping his quill angrily down which caused it to snap in half, "I've just finished the stack from yesterday!"

"And now you have a stack for today!" Marcus snapped, dumping the stack in front of him.

Marcus, though usually brisk, had sounded oddly frustrated to Jareth's ears when he had said this.

So, looking up with a bored expression, he asked, "Is there something wrong Marcus? You know better then respond to your king like that."  
"Sorry, your Grace." He said as took off his glasses and wiped them on the edge of his shirt wearing a snarling expression, "Just having a bad morning."

"Oh, why?" Jareth asked again in a desperate attempt to delay work time.

"It's nothing you have to worry about, your Grace, just a silly little goblin that works for me. That's it."

"If he's causing such a problem, get rid of him." Jareth said, deciding there was no point in stirring a conversation up with him so he had returned to looking with resentment at the stack of documents.

"_She_, your Grace." Marcus growled, "And I can't."

"Why not? You are head librarian slash secretary." Jareth said bored, flipping through a six page taxing update.

"She's too bloody smart."

Surprised at that comment, Jareth looked up and asked, "Smart? What do you mean by smart?"

"Smart" Marcus repeated, not surprised by his shock, "This goblin is smart. Why, she could be smarter then me if she was able to read all the books in the Library, which she's getting awfully close to doing, might I add."

"_Read_." Jareth remarked, "She knows how to _read_. Who taught her?"

"No one. She taught herself, I suppose."

Shaking his head, Jareth then smirked, "Well, I still don't see how she's a problem."

With a snort, Marcus replied, "Smart is only half of it; she bloody far too wild. Disobedient. Undisciplined. Defiant. She is pain in the ass is what she is."

"So is every other Goblin."

"Oh, she's worse." Marcus said. Jareth, however, just snickered and shook his head prompting Marcus to say, "You don't believe me, go see for yourself."

"I think I will." He told him, taking the invitation of not having to do his work happily.

Nodding his head, Marcus shuffled out of the hall with Jareth close behind him. Arriving at the Library in a longer time then Jareth was usually accustomed too, he heard Marcus snapped orders to a little redish brown goblin but when Marcus heard the answer, his light brown face turned a nasty shade of blood red.

"What do you mean she left?" He roared, causing the goblin to dive under a book.

"I'm sorry, Marcus." The goblin stammered, "but she just left when you walked off with those papers. Said something about wanting to find something to read…"

"Oh! I told her!" Marcus growled, his face turning even darker.

Deciding that he must really get started on his work, Jareth quickly left the library (though he truly didn't want to) and warped off into his study.

Groaning with frustration about the damn thing, Jareth slid his thumb along the side of the monstrous pile of papers, wondering what would he have to give to have Marcus do them for him. Realizing that his plan was pointless for Marcus wouldn't do his work for anything, Jareth let go a sigh and was about to sit down when a book suddenly fell from the bookcase on his far right.

Getting up cautiously, he slowly walked over to the book and picked it up, looking around him apprehensively. Looking down at the title and reading _The Elemental Importance In Magic_, Jareth looked up at its fallen spot and saw two bright green emerald eyes staring down at him.

"Why, hello." Jareth said, straightening himself up, "I believe you dropped this."

Stepping out from the shadows, a tiny goblin with a tuff of black hair and a roughly sown dress the color of parchment appeared with startling green eyes that caused Jareth to have to have a jolt of surprise. As far as he had known, all Goblins had brown eyes.

"Yes. Pardon me, your Highness." The tiny goblin said, taking a little curtsie, "I was cleaning and accidently dropped it. I'll take that back now, please, if you would ever be so kind and pardon me for the disruption."

But Jareth didn't hand the book back. Something was odd about this goblin, beside for the green eyes, something just didn't line up exactly right.

Still not understanding why, he suddenly commanded, "What is your name, Goblin."

This caused the green-eyed goblin to backlash and, biting her lip nervously, she asked, "May I ask why is it you would like to know, your Highness?"

Then it hit him, and with a crooked smirk, Jareth asked, "And may I ask why a goblin that works in the library is in my study, claiming to be cleaning?"

Her face dropped completely with a pout as she remarked, "How did you know?"

"I have never heard a cleaning goblin speak with such correct grammar." He grinned.

"Oh, I should have known!" She exclaimed, smacking her hand against her forehead, "I'm so sorry, your Highness, I won't do that again."

"What? Speak with correct grammar?"

"Say that I'm the cleaning goblin." She laughed.

"What's your name?"

"Ravie, your Highness." She said with another curtsie.

"Ravie, you couldn't possibly be the goblin that's causing Marcus to blow steam out of his ear, could you?" Jareth asked, already thinking he knew the answer.

"The very same one." Ravie laughed, grabbing the book Jareth had offered her and pushing it back on the self, "I apologizes for that, your Highness, but it would be a lie to say I won't do it again."

To his surprise, he laughed. He was starting to like this Goblin very much.

"Well, Ravie," He said, "What are you doing in my study?"

Her ears fell a bit and she looked a bit nervous as she explained, "Well, Marcus told me that I couldn't read any more book in the library. So, well, I decided to look for books _outside_ the library… he never said I couldn't read those, and well, I found this place and I didn't know it was your study." She faltered.

"Well, your too clever for me to be mad at you at the moment." Jareth told her after a moment's hesitation, being strangely honest, "But I can't let you leave without a punishment."

Nodding her head, she looked up, her dazzling eyes wide with anticipation.

"You have to do the document for me." Jareth said as the idea hit him.

"What!" Ravie exclaimed, looking over at the papers with shock.

"You heard me." Jareth said coldly, "You have to do everything in those papers, except sign my signature, and it has to be done before night comes. Understood?"

"And what if I don't?" She asked, a little challenge in her tone.

"Then you'll be introduced to the end of my boot." Jareth said and, with a smirk at her frustration, he left the room behind with the spunky little green-eyed goblin, happy to have a day off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey! Wow, thanks so much for all the alerts and favorites and comments you guys sent! I never expected such a large response to this, thanks so much! For those who write (which I'm assuming is most of you) you know how great those things are, so thanks so much and here's the next chapter! the next shouldn't be far behind!**

**~mpenguin**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Dusk had just dissolved into the early shadows of the evening when Jareth had looked up from the book he had been reading and decided bitterly to go back into the study.

Placing his book down on the table in front of him, he stood up from his comfortable armchair and cracked his back. It had been so relaxing to have a day in which he could just sit down and read. The irony of that thought entered his mind a moment later and Jareth tried to suppress the smile. Today had been a strangely good day, but it was soon to end, he realized and then sighed.

No matter how smart Marcus said the goblin was, there was no way that she could have finished all of the work by now. It just wasn't possible; Goblin's just didn't have the mental ability to finish a task in one day. Not even Marcus, who was as close as human/Fae as any Goblin had even been in Jareth's time as Goblin King, could accomplish a task in less then twenty-four hours, though Jareth knew that he often tried to. Their minds were just too spacey and empty for true mental labor.

So Jareth had no hope for a night of rest when he snapped his fingers and arrived at his much hated study. The sight that greeted him was so shocking that Jareth had almost thought that he had done the wrong spell to warp into the room.

The room was almost exactly as he had left it; the bookshelves were still stacked neatly, the fireplace still had the same amount of soot in it, the floors and walls were the same exact cleanliness. But it was the desk that terrified Jareth the most; it was completely clean, no ink stains, no papers ripped, no bite marks, and to the left hand side of the desk, stood a tall stack of papers. Another thing that greatly alarmed Jareth was the fact that the room was silent and there was no little green-eyed goblin in sight.

"Ravie." Jareth called out in his most threatening voice, but no answer came.

_Could she have possibly left without finishing?_ Jareth wondered furiously and a sudden wave of nasty punishments crashed into his mind of what he was going to do with her.

Walking over to his desk, he yanking the first document off the pile and as he was reaching for his quill so he could get started on his work, Jareth froze as his eyes finished scanning the first page. It was done, entirely completely done. The goblin had even put a little sticky note that told him where he needed to put his signature. Bewildered, Jareth flipped through the rest of the document and saw the same thing; completely done with sticky notes of where he needed to sign. When Jareth had turned to look at the pile, he saw that multiple yellow notes stuck of the papers, telling him the same thing: _sign here_.

Suddenly, the door swung open and Jareth's head whipped up to see Marcus stroll inside.

"Can I get your finished work?" He asked, halting in front of him and doing his customary greeting bow.

Dazed, Jareth told him, "Just wait another ten minutes. I just have to sign and then you'll have everything."

"You've finished all of it?" Marcus exclaimed, "You haven't done that in a couple of decades! I'm so glad to hear that you're finally trying to do your work again!"

But Jareth, who hadn't been listening, suddenly cut in, "The goblin who's the pain in the ass, how badly are you in need of her?"

* * *

_"But Mommy! You promised!"_

_ "I'm sorry …. Mommy can't let you because …."_

_ "But I wanna go! Everyone ….."_

_ "Well, you'll be able to go one day! Just, not today."_

_ "When?"_

_ "Someday."_

_ "You always say that!" _

_ "If it matters so much to you, ….."_

_ "But it's suppose to be a mommy daughter thing!"_

_ "So? No one ever said that Dads weren't allowed."_

_ "But …."_

_ "….. You're being ridiculous."_

_ "Please! ... I'll do anything! I'll do the dishes for a whole month! Please go with me!"_

_ "…."_

_ "But mom…."_

_ "No, we'll go another day, now I'm going to be late! ….."_

_*Slam of a door_

_ "But you never keep your promises."_

Something wrenched her wake. The goblin sat up, looking at the darkness ahead of her. Panic roared inside of her along with an almost unbearable pain causing her to curl up in a ball and whimper quietly. She suddenly felt wetness on her cheeks and, lifting her hand, she dabbed her cheeks lightly, surprised at finding tears there. Suddenly, her senses returned to her and the goblin scolded at herself for crying for no reason. Lying back down again, she tried to ignore the feeling that she had forgotten something and closed her green eyes, falling back to sleep instantly.


	4. Chapter 4

**You guys are so awesome! thanks for all the reviews and alerts! well, here the next one, like I promised. It's a long, but I guess that makes up for the short one from last time. Hope you like it.**

**~mpenguin**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"Ravie!" Mimion whined as Ravie wrapped up her story of what had happen to her yesterday.

"I can'ts believe you do that." Copperpot grumbled.

"And gots away with it!" Fifo growled.

"Jeez, you are all acting like I challenged the monster to a fight!" Ravie laughed, grabbing an egg from the basket Copperpot had brought and popping it into her mouth.

"Uh, you kinda did!" Mimion exclaimed, "You being in Kingy's study is like yous get fight with monster. Its worse!"

"Actually, no, monster is bader." Fifo interjected, "Monster could kill yous, Kingy just kick yous into stinky bog."

"No matters" Mimion snapped as Ravie gave Fifo a grateful smile, "Is still dangerous. And if yous get kick into stinky bog, do not thinks you livin with me any more."

"Not like its much better then bog." Fifo teased, earning himself a smack on the ear.

"Well, there's no need to worry about that, Mimion." Ravie laughed, "I'm not planning to go back to that room _ever_ again. Those documents were so boring, if I had to do them again, I might voluntarily jump into the bog."

Fifo and Copperpot laughed at that and even Mimion cracked a smile.

"Well, at least you learn your lesson." She said, handing Ravie a jellybean.

"And l learned it well." Ravie said, shivering.

"Hey!" Came a voice below them, and the four friends looked down and at the grinning face of a tiny redish brown goblin.

"Hey Jojen!" Ravie called back, "Do you want an egg to eat?"

"No, I'm good!" He said, his broken toothy smile still in place, "But we better start heading back Ravie, Marcus is not in a good mood."

"Is he ever?" Copperpot asked innocently

"Not when Ravie's around." Jojen teased back, making all of them laugh.

Shoving the rest of the jellybean down her throat, Ravie waved good-bye to her friends and jumped off the roof of Fifo's house, landing as gracefully as a Goblin could next to Jojen. Giving each other swift grins, they started their way to the castle.

After they walked through the goblin city and were on their way up the steps that lead into the castle, Jojen finally asked, "So, what did Kingy do to you?"

"How do you know that he saw me?" Ravie asked, surprised.

With a shrug, Jojen told her, "He came into the library with Marcus yesterday looking for you."

"Looking for me?" Ravie asked, once more shocked at the news, "Why were they looking for me?"

"Didn't he tell you when he found you?" Jojen asked, this time he was surprised as well.

"No, he found me digging around his study for a book." Ravie told him, getting him to groan.

"Ravie!" Jojen hissed, "How could you have been so stupid? I thought everyone knew where his study was!"

"Oh, I do know." Ravie said with a wicked grin, "He just didn't know that."

Not being able to help himself, Jojen smiled saying, "I don't know whether to think you're brave or you're stupid."

"Why not both?" Ravie laughed and he joined in.

Their laughter was cut short, however, as soon as they rounded the corner and found themselves almost running to Marcus.

"There you are!" He snarled as he looked over the huge pile of papers he was carrying, "I need you at the library, right now!"

Nodding their heads, they both start to pass him until he cut Ravie off with his foot.

"Not you!" He snapped, "King Jareth wants to see you."

"What-why?" Ravie stammered.

"Just go and ask him." Marcus said, rolling his eyes and then he rounded the corner.

Jojen gave her a look of pity and, after Ravie returned it with a wish-me-luck look, she turned around and followed Marcus. He, however, was not heading towards the King's Study.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ravie asked as she hurried to catch up with him.

"_I_ don't have to see King Jareth." Marcus said, shooting her a quick glance. "He's at his study, I trust you know where it is?"

Nodding her head, she turned away from him and started her way carefully to the study.

Her footsteps had never sounded louder as she walked down the hall, trying to think of what gruesome punishment he might have installed for her. But what was even worse then the thought that every step she took was one step closer to her doom was the fact that she had no idea what she had done to deserve this.

She had served her punishment for trespassing into his room by filling in the documents, and Ravie could only assume that he didn't care too much that she annoyed Marcus because he mentioned it when they last spoke and he seemed more amused then angry about it. And as far as she knew, she had done those documents splendidly and had finished long _before_ nightfall, which was her deadline.

Unless he didn't like her work or he found out she lied about not know that the room was his study, Ravie didn't know what else she had done to have him call her.

And her thinking time had just run out.

Looking up at the door and gulping, she took a steadying breath and opened the door. As she peaked her head in, she saw that the Goblin King was sitting at his desk, his eyes scanning the document that was lying in front of him and his right hand was twirling his quill pen absentmindedly.

Taking one more breath, Ravie finally said out loud, "You called for me, Your Grace?"

Looking up dully, the Goblin King took in her appearance with a quick glance before saying, "I did, as a matter of fact."

Nodding her head, Ravie stepped completely into the room and shut the door, walking over to him.

"What is it I can do for you, Your Highness?" She asked when she felt she was a good enough distance that his boot wouldn't too hurt much when it hit her.

"I want you to help me with the documents from now on." He said, pointing to the large stack of papers on his right with his quill pen.

"What?" Ravie nearly screamed, "What did I do wrong?"

"Nothing?" The Goblin King said, looking at her with surprise, "You did everything nearly perfectly."

"Then why am I being punished?" Ravie asked irritably.

That, to Ravie's surprise, caused the Goblin King to laugh, "Punished? It does seem like a bit of a punishment, I suppose."

Ravie just looked at him with astonishment until he quit laughing. As far as she had known, the Goblin King wasn't able to laugh _at all_.

His laughter eventually died down enough for him to tell her, "Its not a punishment, however. I'm just far to lazy to do all this work, and since you did such a good job on the last pile, I trust that you can do any other one just as well."

"Well, what's in it for me?" Ravie asked, but quickly clamped her mouth shut, frightened at what she had just done.

As quickly as his amusement at come, his anger had flared up. Jareth looked down at the green-eyed goblin and sneered, "_What's in it for you?_ What's in it is that you won't be thrown into the Bog of Eternal Stench."

To Ravie's horror, her recklessness took over her again and she found herself saying, "Well now, why do that? Sure, you can make me do that work, but after a while I'll grow unhappier and who knows, something might just be written incorrectly. But now, if there's something in it for me… there's less chance of that happening."

The Goblin King looked down at her with half bewilderment and half anger and he finally growled, "Are you blackmailing me?"

"That's for you to decide, Your Highness." Ravie said with a curtsy, feeling herself digging a much bigger hole then she was already in.

After a moment of angry silence, the Goblin King finally said, "Or I could just kick you into the Bog now."

"Yeah, but then unless you want a smelly goblin who's very unhappy with you to be doing your work, you'll probably be doing all the work by yourself again, and do you really want that? Of course not, that's why we're in this conversation to begin with."

Jareth could only look at the goblin with plain shock. Never, in his so many years of being Goblin King, had he ever had a conversation like this with another goblin. Even Marcus never blackmailed him or talked to him like this. He had half the urge to kick her against the wall and half the urge to praise her.

But the single thing he could agree on was that the damn goblin was right.

"Fine, what is it you want?" Jareth snarled.

Ravie, who had been kicking herself mentally for being so stupid as to challenge the Goblin King, heard this and nearly fell over with relief.

"I want to read your books." She said as soon as she could breathe properly.

It took him a moment of considerate before the Goblin King said, "Fine, you can read all of them _except_ for the magic books."

Ravie bit her lip for a moment. The magic books were the ones she wanted to read the most. But still, why refuse? It was probably the best deal she could get, and compare to being kicked into the Bog, it sounded like heaven.

"Fine!" Ravie finally agreed, "You have a deal."

"And what a deal it is." Jareth muttered to himself, looking with interest as the green-eyed goblin scurried over to help him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey! Once again, thanks for all the reviews/alerts/faves, it means a lot! so, heres the newest chapter, it might be a little boring in the beginning so sorry about that. Hopefully you guys will like it.**

**~mpenguin (and, out of curiosity, how many people actually read these things?)**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

It was one of those afternoons that the sun beat down softly on the land and the warm breeze that was in the air carried the promise of summer. There was not a single cloud in the sky; the trees had reach the stage that most of the branches were no longer naked, and flowers were in full bloom. Most of the creatures in the Labyrinth wandered around, forever clueless of where they were going, but for today they couldn't care and even many of the Goblins chose to stay down in the Underground instead of playing their favorite games with the humans that live in that very strange and different place called the Aboveground.

While the rest of the Labyrinth slept happily under the warm pleasant sun, Ravie, of course, was stuck indoors, filling in documents next to the ever silent and distant Goblin King.

More then ever was Ravie overjoyed at herself for being reckless and making the Goblin King pay her with reading material for doing these boring things. If she hadn't, she was certain that she would have jumped into the Bog happily by now. Heck, there were still some days that she found herself wondering how bad living in that stink would be. But the thought of the books, history book, fiction books, logic books, books about myths, legends, warriors, and long ago wars were the only thing that kept her grounded, and more then ever did the thought of those books keep her from jumping out the window and into the warm spring day.

Looking over at the once again humongous stack of papers, Ravie couldn't see why, oh why were there so many papers. Some of the papers were not even that important or had any reason of being addressed!

One example that Ravie distinctly remembered was a document that she had filled in during one of the first couple of days working at her new post. It was a trading record with the neighboring kingdoms, but what Ravie couldn't understand was why have this when the goblins never traded with anyone or anything. Whatever they wanted, they simple stole from the humans and even the neighboring kingdoms if they could get away with it. So why they had this log was beyond any reason Ravie could think of and when she had asked the Goblin King for a reason behind it, he just had told her to be quiet and go back to work.

And _he_ was another problem. Ever since their bargain, the Goblin King hadn't spoken anything to her except for a few barked commands. Not that Ravie had wanted to befriend him or anything like that, but she was dying for some conversation or anything to make this awful heavy silence die or to make time go faster. What scared Ravie the most was that she was beginning to look forward to the moment when Marcus would come in to ask if they had finished their work. At least he always made a little bit of conversation before he left again, leaving the boring silence to consume Ravie once again.

With a sad sigh, Ravie returned her gaze back on the pointless chicken count document in front of her and attempted to read it once more. However, her restlessness had doubled because of the weather and she found herself having to shift her sitting position every couple of minutes.

Apparently, the Goblin King had noticed because he suddenly growled, "Quit moving."

Ravie forced herself to sit still, but after a few more minutes, she couldn't help but shift herself again.

"Do you know how annoying that it?" He asked, glaring at her, "I can't focus on my work."

"Oh, you weren't focusing on your work before I started shifting." Ravie muttered to herself but he heard.

"What did you say?" He asked venomously, though he had known perfectly well what she had just said.

"You've been staring at the same spot for ten minutes now." Ravie smirked, pointing at the paragraph with her long black quill pen.

The Goblin King bit his cheek a moment before saying, "And since you've been apparently watching what I've been doing, I can only assume that you haven't be doing your work either."

"How can I read a chicken report?" Ravie said defensively, "I mean, come on, how can I believe this when most Goblins can't count past twenty nine?"

"You give them far too much credit." The Goblin King smirked, "Most can't count past ten."

"But they're close!" Ravie exclaimed, "Eleventeen, twelveteen, I think that should count."

"I'll count it the day that eleventeen and twelveteen become actual numbers." He said, returning back the paper.

Ravie looked back down on hers and after a moment of silence suddenly broke off into giggles.

"What?" The Goblin King snapped.

"Nothing." Ravie giggled, shaking her head and calming herself down.

After he muttered something under his breath and Ravie finally composed herself, they when back to reading the documents. But only another moment of silence past until the Goblin King muttered:

"Oh, screw it." and he signed the paper anyway.

"How many of the papers do you do that for?" Ravie asked innocently.

"None of your business." He growled, putting it on the finish pile.

"Can I do that?" Ravie asked as he cracked his knuckles.

"What? Crack your knuckles?

"No, say 'Oh, screw it' and give it to you to sign."

"Only if you want to be kicked into the wall." He grinned cruelly.

To Ravie's horror, the words flew out of her mouth before she could stop herself, "And, just out of curiosity, do you actually do your threats?"

The look he gave her was one that caused her to shiver down to her very heart and she wasn't surprise when he flicked the back of her head.

"Of course I do." He growled as Ravie rubbed her head gingerly, "Though, most of the time, goblins listen to me the first time and don't talk back."

"Sorry, Your Highness." Ravie muttered.

Jareth watched the little green-eyed goblin look back at the document and start working again a little more keenly. He was surprised at the little pang of guilt he had at hitting her, but it had to be done. She was getting far too bold around him. And if she's not afraid of him, she would spread it around like a disease. Goblins were such a pain to control when they weren't afraid of you.

Grabbing the next document on the to do pile, he looked at it drearily and got to work. It was a report on the population of goblins and Jareth found himself wanting to, once again, sign the thing without reading it. But the just said conversation flowed into his head and Jareth was reluctant to show the goblin how often he actually did just sign without reading, so he forced himself to read it. But, to his dismay, he read the word twelveteen and grinned. He was only lucky that Ravie was now focused on the papers to be able to notice one of his rare grins.

After finishing the chicken count document, Ravie gave it to the Goblin King and reached for a new one. But the new paper was so bizarre and so pointless that Ravie could only stare at it and then wildly flip the pages.

"What are you doing?" Jareth asked, as the wild page flipping caught his attention.

"Hardwood flooring?" Ravie muttered incredulously.

"What?"

"Hardwood flooring." Ravie stated louder this time, "It's a document about hardwood flooring, but we have no hardwood floors!"

"I'm sure we have some…" Jareth trailed off, trying to think if they did have any hardwood flooring.

"Is there a room somewhere in the castle with it? Because all goblin houses have either stone floors or dirt floors." Ravie said, very close to laughter.

Jareth, who wasn't able to think of a room where it had wooden floors, took the document from Ravie and started to scan it. "I don't think they even know what hardwood flooring is." He finally said trying his hardest not to laugh while Ravie looked like she was about to burst.

Muttering under his breath a spell, the document suddenly burst into flames, causing Ravie to jump about a foot into the air.

"You can do that?" She exclaimed.

"Light things on fire? Well, of course."

"No, just light a document on fire!"

"Marcus will never know the difference."

"Don't bet on it."

"Well, it's not like it'll affect the whole kingdom." He said, rolling his eyes.

Ravie couldn't say anything because she was too busy laughing.

"Go back to work." Jareth barked, returning to his document as well.

"Yes, because now we've just wasted eleventeen minutes."

This caused the Goblin King to have a burst of laughter escape from him.

"Why are you so keen on talking?" He sudden asked, trying to compose himself.

"Because these documents are so boring, I need to spice this work time up a bit." She grinned as she grabbed another document.

"Really, you can multitask?" Jareth asked, not completely in disbelief. This goblin was just full of surprises.

"Of course I can!" She exclaimed, "How else could I have gotten all my work done _and_ bother Marcus at the same time?"

"I thought being a pest was just your personality."

"Ouch, that hurt."

"Just go back to work." He said shaking his head and the green-eyed Goblin obliged.

As the working silence settled back in, a little more lighter this time, Jareth quickly realized his mistake. He was talking to her again and she was getting far to comfortable around him. This couldn't do. It shouldn't do. But for some reason, Jareth found himself not caring as much as he really should.


	6. Chapter 6

**So, heres the next chapter! It's a bit on the longer scale, but i guess that's alright. It'll be a while before I post anything else cause I'm going camping but I'll try and get something up as soon as I can!**

**And thanks for the reviews/alerts/favs. You guys are the best, and i love reading what you have to say!**

**~mpenguin**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"_Daddy! You're Home!"_

_ "… How was school?"_

_ "It was so great! ….. See! Look at what I got!"_

_ "That's great sweetie. Is mommy home?"_

_ "Hmm, nope! ….. Daddy, are you okay?"_

_ "What? Oh, of course I am! I'm just bummed cause I wanted to have dinner as a whole family, but I guess just not today."_

_ "Yeah, mommy's been spending a lot of time at work, hasn't she?"_

_ "Hmh. So, what do you want to eat?"_

_ "Takeout!"_

_ "Haha, you sure?"_

_ "Yeah! Let me just get the menus!"_

_ *Runs, trips, falls."_

_ "….! You have to be careful!"_

_ "I'm alright daddy! See!"_

_ *gets up, crashing into something, falls again._

_ "Sar-_

_ "_Ravie!" The sudden yelling and shaking caused Ravie to suddenly wrench awake, and in the process, she sat up and knocked her head against something.

"Ouchy!" Moaned a voice next to her, and Ravie, who was rubbing her forehead gingerly, peeked over and saw Mimion's dark mud colored face.

"Mimion! What the heck?" Ravie exclaimed, sitting up once more, "What are you doing?"

"Me? What are _you_ doing?" Mimion remarked back rubbing her cheek.

"What do you mean?"

"You was tossin and turnin in yous sleep and was whimperin a bit."

"No I wasn't."

"Yeah you was! And look, you're crying!"

The statement brought Ravie to notice that her cheeks did indeed feel a bit wet and she touched them nervously, already knowing that Mimion was right.

"What happen?" Mimion asked gently.

"Nothing, maybe I ate something funny." Ravie said, getting out of bed.

"So it made yous cry?"

"I don't know, maybe." Ravie said, feeling panicky and cornered and just in so much pain.

"Ravie..." Mimion faltered, and then asked with much uncertainty, "Yous couldn't have been _dreaming_, could yous?"

"What? No!" Ravie exclaimed, wanting to run away, "I couldn't have. Goblin's don't dream!"

"Yeah, but you ain't a very normal goblin."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Ravie growled, getting all riled up.

"No! I didn't means it like tat" Mimion said quickly, "it's just, oh, you knows what I means! You do things easily tat other goblins can'ts. I mean it as a good thing!"

"Doesn't sound like one to me." Ravie mumbled.

"Ravie…"

Cutting her off, Ravie said "I have to go to work. See you later." And then she rushed out of the house before Mimion could say another word.

She wanted to run, wanted to hide, want to just curled up into a ball and weep, but Ravie tried to look normal and started her way to the castle in a slower pace then she usually did. She couldn't help it; the pain was too much that it was hard to breath.

As she staggered along, Ravie tried her best to remember her dream, but couldn't. Yes, she knew she had been dreaming, she had known for years now that she could dream, but she never bothered to tell anyone. She didn't _dare_ tell anyone. Like Mimion had said, goblins can't dream, and if someone was to find out that Ravie could… she didn't want to think about it.

And its not like they were a problem before; she would just wake up in the morning or the middle of the night, trigged by a dream which would quick disappear into the depths of her mind the moment her eyes were open.

But lately… they hurt. The dreams didn't come and go as innocently either, often causing pain to stab at her and for her eyes to involuntarily weep. And they didn't disappear, not as quickly as they did before any how. Ravie could remember colors before they faded, and she could remember herself moving or feelings she had at the time. And with this dream, she remembered a voice. A voice she knew she knew from somewhere, but just couldn't put a name to it. Like it was locked in the back of her mind.

She couldn't think about that anymore, Ravie thought as she was at the foot of the castle. Its not like it would help fussing about it now anyway, when it disappeared, it disappeared. With a sigh, and hoping that her eyes weren't red from crying, she opened the door and tried to drag the worry to the back of her mind. It wasn't good to be thinking about this in the castle, especially now that she worked right next to the Goblin King.

To Ravie's luck, the Goblin King himself had other thing preoccupied in his mind to notice the strangely quiet and shy behavior of the green-eyed goblin.

Looking down at the document he was working at, which he had been doing futilely for the past half an hour now, he tapped his foot anxiously, nervously checking the clock every couple of minutes.

Ravie, though in turmoil herself, tried to push it aside and asked very shyly, "Do you want me to do that for you?"

It took a while for that question to enter his mind but when it finally did reach him, Jareth shook his head and said, "No, just go back to work."

But neither of them really did.

Still staring at him, Ravie decided that being flicked in the back of the head couldn't possibly be more painful then what she went through this morning so she dared to ask the Goblin King, "What's wrong?"

That messaged reached him much quicker then the first and Jareth, sounding slightly taken aback, said, "Nothing, just go back to work."

"Only if you do." Ravie said boldly.

Jareth looked at her with a puzzled expression and finally said, "Why do you want to know?"

"Umm, maybe cause I'm nosy?" Ravie said with a weak smile.

Jareth shook his head at that, but after a moment of silence, told her, "I'm expecting a visitor today."

This struck Ravie as odd; who would visit the Kingdom of Goblins?

Wanting to ask who they were, but deciding that she probably wouldn't get an answer, she instead asked, "Why aren't you looking forward to seeing them?"

"They're going to remind me about an obligation I have to attend." He growled, though for the first time, not angry at something Ravie had said.

"Maybe they'll forget this year?" Ravie said, trying to cheer him up.

But he chuckled humorlessly and said "I've been saying that for the past couple of hundreds of years, and they never do."

"Well, when do they usually show up?"

Looking over at the clock, Jareth said, "Well, they usually come-"

But at that moment the door burst open and a voice shouted happily "Hullo there, elder brother!"

Ravie stared at the two strangers with interest and slight amusement. The first one that had come through the door, and had shouted the greeting, was a happy-go-lucky looking sort of person. His sandy colored hair was shorter then the Goblin King's, only reaching the end of his ears, and it was greatly disheveled. He had dark blue laughing eyes and a big white perfect smile that, Ravie guessed, was almost always on his face.

The other stranger, a woman, looked much more related to the Goblin King then the brother did. While the brother's hair was a darker, her's was the same shade of shiny blond as the Goblin King's. Her eyes, though not miss matched like his, where closer to his light blue colored eye, but hers were more faded in color and looked almost like pieces of ice.

"Hello Jareth." She said, more in a dignified matter then the other's greeting, "How are you?"

"The same as always." Jareth replied coolly.

Ravie, unnoticed by the Fae, snuck off and hide behind a bookcase. There was no way she was missing this.

"I've come to tell you-" The girl started but Jareth cut her off.

"That I have to attend the ball. Yes, yes. No need go through the whole speech, Magenta, I know it by heart." Jareth said with a smirk.

"Well, I wouldn't have to say it if you would come without us coming here to remind you every year." She said hotly, all of her dignity forgotten.

"Aw, come on sis, you know that if he had a choice in the matter, he'd prefer not for us to come remind him at all." Jareth's brother, Griffin, said with a wink.

"I see you're as childish as ever." Jareth said jokingly.

"You would be too, if you could." Griffin jested back.

"You two." Magenta said, shaking her head and glaring at them angrily, "I'm appalled that, after all these years, you still act like you're teenagers. And one of you is a king!"

"It's better then having a stick up my ass." Griffin muttered to himself, but Ravie heard and had to stuff her fist in her mouth to keep herself from laughing.

Jareth, however, took a different approach, "It's not as we're in the presence of company. Anyway, you can tell mother that I'll attend the ball, like always."

"You know," Griffin said after Magenta nodded her head and left without another word, "if you just hurried up a picked a queen, you wouldn't have mother nagging you anymore."

"I don't think so." Jareth smirked.

"Yeah, your right, plus you'll have another woman nagging as well." Griffin joked and then he said his goodbye and followed Magenta out the door.

"How come you've never said you had siblings?" Ravie said as she left her hiding space.

Jareth stiffened with surprise and then growled, "Oh damn, I forgot about you."

"Yes, its one of the highlights about being a Goblin." Ravie grinned as she hopped up onto the desk, "Fae often forget your there. But, anyway, who's gonna be the new queen?" She said and grinned with amusement as she saw the Goblin King stiffen even more and seemed to scold at himself for having her around.

"No one at the moment." Jareth growled.

"Oh come on, there has to be someone!" She teased once more, "I wanna know who my queen will be! Is she nice? Is she pretty? Is she smart? What kingdom does she belong to?"

"Damn you." He said as Ravie laugh at his facial expression, "I swear, you're the biggest mistake I've ever made."

"At least I do your work." Ravie laughed.

"Somedays its not enough." He muttered and then he got back to work.

After she had finish laughing, she returned to her work as well, finding it odd that he hadn't threatened her or told her to be quiet. He must really hate going to that ball, she thought with a shrug, giving him a sideways glance and seeing him still deep in thought.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey! So sorry that it took me so long to update the next chapter! I had been so busy last month but hopefully i can get started on regularly updating a chapter once a week! So here's the next chapter! Its a bit rusty since I haven't written anything for four weeks and, I have a feeling you guys are not going to like this chapter but please don't quit reading this story!**

**~mpenguin **

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

"Do you want me to do that for you?"

"No."

"Really?"

"I'm positive."

"You must be really desperate if you're choosing to turn down free labor."

Jareth gave Ravie a sideways glare. She was oddly pestering today, which made him suspicious.

"Why do you want to do my work so badly?" He said

She took a moment's consideration before saying, "Um, because then I won't have to be forced to do them later when you have to leave for the ball."

But, instead of believing her, Jareth then asked, "But you just said you thought I must be so desperate not to go that I'm not letting you do my work, saying that you think I'll do the work to prolong not having to go. So then, why do you believe that you'll be forced to do it when its time for me to go to the ball?"

Ravie winced at that and said, "Ah, fine you caught me! I'll admit it, though I'm a bit ashamed of saying so. But, I'm actually starting to like filling in the documents."

Jareth's grin of victory disappeared after that and, as she kept babbling on about how she now likes the work, he cut in, "Weren't you just saying the other day how much you rather jump out the window then fill in another trade report?"

Her face fell at that and Ravie exclaimed bitterly, "When did you start listening to what I say!"

Shaking his head and trying not to grin at that, he said smugly, "I've always paid attention, but you never seem to have anything interesting to say."  
"Fine, now I take back my offer!" She said pouting and returned to her sheet.

Jareth would not let it go, however, and sliding the sheet away from her, asked, "So, why is it you keep offering to do my work."

Ravie just shook head and reached for another document but Jareth cut her off with his other arm. She gave him an icy look, which he returned.

After a moment of glaring, she gave a sigh of defeat and finally admitted, "Well, I knew how upset you were of going to the ball so I thought maybe if you had a day off of work to cool off, you would be in a better mood…"

Her confession struck Jareth with surprised and he had a sudden rush of affection for the goblin.

Giving back the document, Jareth told her, "Yes, well, the only way for me to get in a better mood is to get distracted, which you are a very good distraction."

With a large grin, Ravie said, "So, you're saying I made you feel better?"

Realizing his mistake, he flicked her in the back of the head and growled at her to get back to work, which she did with a smug smile on her face.

But, as soon as he stepped into the ballroom of the Fae Court, Jareth soon regretted his decision of not taking Ravie's offer.

Like always, the ballroom was decorated splendidly; the Fae themselves were all dressed up in lavishing dress and extravagant suits that glittered as they walked around in their groups, chattering to each other. Jareth was not surprised that the humans had always depicted Fae as beautiful creatures, as physical beauty was in their nature if not their character. But, looking around the beautiful room did not raise Jareth's spirits at all; it was not the decorations or the Fae really that made him despise this day; it was the reason they all gathered here.

The ball carried the title of the Midsummer's Ball, but Jareth thought a more correct title for it would be the Mating Ball. The already married couples would watch the bachelors and bachelorettes in the room, casting their bets of who would end up with whom and would poke and prod their favorites together. In fact, Jareth thought, looking around at the married Fae in the room, it would be more true to say Fae had arranged marriages then marriages of their own choosing. But such a marriage Jareth would not stand for, though it was getting harder and harder to keep his resolution as the years past.

"Hullo! There you are!" Called a jaunty voice.

Looking over his right shoulder, Jareth grinned as he saw his younger brother walk up to him, his hair even more chaotic then usual and his face flushed.

"Well, Griffin," Jareth joked as he reach him, "it can't be more then twenty minutes into the ball and you've, as the humans say, you've already got some?"

Laughing, Griffin said, "How do you know it wasn't before?"

All Jareth did was raise an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

As he laughed again, Griffin answered, "Ah, alright. But, I got to say, fifteen minutes into the ball, that's got to be a record."

Shaking his head and smirking, Jareth said, "I've done it in only ten." And then he walked away to get some wine.

As he grab a glass, his brother caught up to him and, grabbing a glass for himself, said, "Alright then, lets do a competition, eh? Who can get the most girls?"

"No." Jareth said shortly as he took a sip.

"Aww! Why? It'll be fun? Afraid to losing?" He challenged.

"First off." Jareth said, after he took another sip, "I have more charm then you will ever have, so me losing isn't an opinion. Second, if I bedded any of these lovely ladies, I'm sure they would think they have a shot at becoming a queen, which would be very cruel to give them the idea."

"Agh." Griffin groaned, "I swear, you being single is more of a chain then you being married."

"Well, unlike you, I don't plan on sleeping with anyone other then my wife when I do get married."

"Wouldn't you get bored?" Griffin joked.

Jareth just chuckle as he took another sip.

"Speaking of marriage." Jareth said after he swallowed, "where is the devil?"

"She and Father haven't appeared yet." Griffin said after he took a sip as well, "but don't think you got lucky and she won't come at all. I swear she _breathes_ for this day. You know you're her favorite toy to play with."

And, as if on cue, Jareth's, Griffin's, and Magenta's parent appeared into the glittering ball.

Their father, Linnith, was a towering Fae with sandy hair that matched Griffin's but matched Jareth's in length. His eyes were dark brown, almost black, and, though almost 2000 years old, he could still cause any woman to swoon, which he did much more often then Jareth liked.

Magenta was the spitting image of their mother, Lorabelle. Their mother had the shiny bright blonde hair that both Jareth and Magenta had inherited and eyes like Magenta's as well. But, at least in Jareth's eyes, Magenta had more life in her face and happiness from when she was a carefree child, while his mother was just pure cold. There was no hint that showed she had once smiled, no warmth in her eyes, she was as stiff and cold as the pieces of ice in her eyes.

It only took seconds for their mother to spot Jareth before she walked over, their father looking around as he trailed after her.

"Jareth! I haven't seen you since last year!" His mother said, though it implied she wanted to see him, Jareth only had to wait a few seconds before he heard the reason, "You know, you should really visit more often. It looks as if you are not close with your family to other people."

All Jareth could do was twitch the left corner of his mouth.

"Hello Mother." Griffin said happily.

"Oh, hello Griffin, would you mind getting me a glass of wine?" She said, before turning on Jareth.

Jareth was only able just glared at Griffin as he grinned sneakily and saunter away.

"So, Jareth, I was talking to my good friend, you know, Queen Genevieve, and she was saying that her daughter, Justine, had just turn marriageable age! You remember Justine don't you? No? Oh, I'll show you to her when I see her… Oh! And you know who I heard is looking for a husband? Princess Cecelia! You've met her haven't you? Such a rare jewel, really… Oh, you idiot!" She suddenly quietly hissed, causing Jareth to jump, "Don't just stand there and nod your head! Why are you even here if you aren't going around, trying to find a queen?"

Jareth had learned in the past that it was better to just not say anything so he stood there mutely, looking at her.

He knew she had understood him by doing that, but she choose to ignore the obvious message and instead said, "Oh, you were so much brighter as a child. So much easier to tell what to do. And now you just stand their glaring at me. Don't you understand I'm trying to help you? That's why I'm telling you to hurry up and get married? You are reaching an unmarriageable age, whether you think so or not. The new generation is coming in and they are not going to marry you. And then what? You're going to die an old bachelor? And whom will the throne go to? One of your sister's children? No, I won't allow it, imagine the shame…"

To his relief, Griffin came back to his side with two glasses of wine and, handing one to their mother, said, "Queen Taria was looking for you, mother."

"Oh, good!" She said and quickly hurried away.

"Thanks." Jareth muttered as he gulped the rest of his wine down and happily accepted the second cup Griffin had brought.

Griffin just laughed.

"Do you know who that lady over there is?" Their father, who had be standing there, looking around, not listening or even acknowledging that his wife and heir had been fighting, suddenly said.

Looking around, Jareth's eyes landed on a very pretty young girl standing awkwardly alone. She had flowing wavy charcoal black hair and black eyes that went well with her very pale skin.

"She's not of age yet, father." Griffin said as they turned their heads back.

"Oh, what a shame." He sighed, and he walked away.

Though normally Jareth would have gritted his teeth together at this, he found something else much more interesting.

"Isn't that Justine, Queen Genevieve's daughter?" Jareth asked Griffin nonchalantly.

"Yes, I believe it is." Griffin said, a bit uncomfortable as he saw Jareth's grin. "So," he said, changing the subject, "Are you going to look for her?"

"Who?"

"Your queen."

"Oh." Jareth said with a sigh, and as he looked around, told him quietly, "You know, I don't think she exists…"

There was a moment of awkward silence before Griffin asked, "So, you're not going to look anymore?"

As Jareth's eyes landed on a pretty golden haired Fae, who gave him a flirtatious smile, Jareth said, "No, I'm going for the next best thing."

And, finishing his drink, he went over to talk with her.


	8. Chapter 8

**AHHH! I'm so sorry! I guess my goal to get a new chapter up every week went out the window... haha, well, hopefully the next chapter gets up a bit sooner.. though, honestly, I probably won't write it till the middle of October... **

**Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter! It's a tiny bit shorter, but I think you guys will like it...**

**~mpenguin**

* * *

**Chapter Eight:**

Ravie sat alone in the Goblin King's study, the weather outside casted a cloudy shadow in the room and Ravie sat there, staring blankly at the document before her. She was more then thankful that the Goblin King was late (probably slept in from staying up too long at the ball) because she wasn't sure if she could keep a straight face today. Her mind kept running away from her task and kept coming back to the dream. The dream she had last night. The dream that _didn't_ go away.

In the dream, she had been hiding. Next to her had been, strangely enough, two human children. But what struck Ravie as the weirdest thing, and what terrified her most, was that she knew those people. They weren't just things her mind had created, for some reason, Ravie knew they existed.

One was a girl, Ravie knew her name was Stacy. She was a pretty little girl with dark skin, almost like Mimion's, but Stacy's was more colored like gingerbread then mud. She had large doe like milky brown eyes and her black hair had always been in a braid.

The second child was a boy named Noah. He had always been tall for his age and always looked a bit sickly. His light brown hair always looked a bit thin and his brown freckles went weirdly with his extremely pale skin; but Ravie remembered that his green eyes always shone out happily and brightly.

Ravie's knew she had liked these kids, but that's what brought on the series of painful panic. Ravie had never been in the Aboveground her entire life, well, only once or twice, but she had never met any children. How did she know them?

As she closed her eyes to remember the words that she had exchanged with Stacy and Noah in the dream, the door to the study suddenly wrenched open, causing Ravie to jump about a foot in the air and to look up to see who had entered. It was, of course, the Goblin King who slowly walked over to his chair, wincing in pain and rubbing his temples gingerly.

When he finally took notice that Ravie was there and staring at him with a slight grin on her face, he barked out, "What?"

"Hangover?" Ravie smirked.

She was then rewarded with a flick on the back of her head.

Shaking her head and still smiling, Ravie returned to her document and started to try and fill it in again, but her dream kept coming back to her.

_"Noah!" Stacy had hissed._

_ "What?"_

_ "Don't go so close to the edge!"_

_ "Why?"_

_ "You might fall!"_

"Why in the hell are you not writing?" Came the Goblin King's anger growl, making Ravie jump again.

"Why are you not writing?" Ravie said as a reflex.

"I am writing." He growled, rubbing his head.

"Well, you are two or even three hours late, so I have done so much more work then you have done in the past ten minutes, so you can't say that I'm not working." Ravie reasoned.

"Oh, shut up and go back to work." He mumbled

So, Ravie tried to get her mind to focus on the papers.

_"Are they gone yet?" Ravie had asked, though her voice did not sound as squeaky as it did now._

_ "I don't know… but lets wait here anyway." Stacy had whispered._

_ "Oh, this is so stupid!" Noah growled quietly, "What did we ever do to make them chase us?"_

_ "It's because they're jerks!" Ravie hissed, "They like chasing little kids around and making them terrified and climb up trees or hide in houses! Its all a game to them!"_

_ "Oh shut up!" Stacy whispered worriedly as they heard a crack._

"You're still not working." The Goblin King had snapped again.

"Don't you have something to make that hangover go away?" Ravie suddenly snapped back. The frustration and worry from her dream had made her temper even shorter.

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" He growled venomously.

"A pissy hungover Fae!"

A moment of angry silence fell over them as they glared at each other until finally King Jareth said, rubbing his temples, "Yeah, fine, you're right. I'll be right back."

So, when he stood up and warped off to do whatever he had to do to get over his hangover, Ravie closed her eyes and tried to remember the rest of the dream.

_"Oh raaats! Come out, come out, where ever you are!" Came a call followed by a fit of laughter from a group of much older boys._

_ "Noah!" Ravie had whispered worriedly as she saw him scoot closer and closer to the edge of the tree branch. _

_In his hand, Ravie could see, he held a pinecone and he looked around, scanning to see the bullies who chased them. Spotting them, he pulled his arm back for the throw but there was a sudden sickening crack and both Ravie and Stacy screamed his name as he suddenly fell down with the rest of the branch._

"There, that should be better." The Goblin King's voice suddenly said as he warped back, once again causing Ravie to jump. "And, if you ever talk to me like that again, I _will_ kick you, understand?

"Yes." She mumbled, going back to her work.

The room fell into silence, except for the scratch of Ravie's pen, until the Goblin King asked, "Why are you so jumpy today?"

"Huh?" Ravie asked, alarmed.

"Jumpy? You're so jumpy."

"Aren't all Goblins jumpy around you?"

"All but you and Marcus."

"Well, maybe I'm learning to be afraid of you."

He hadn't smiled at that. Instead, he put down his papers altogether and asked, "Are you?"

"Do you want me to be?" Ravie said back, suddenly frozen.

An uncomfortable silence had rapidly swallowed them whole. Frozen for a few seconds, Ravie gradually remembered what she was suppose to be doing and, shaking her head, got back to work.

Trying her best to ignore the unsettling prickling feeling on the back of her neck, she nearly jumped with surprise as she heard the Goblin King's voice, "I honestly don't care."

She nearly frozen again at that statement and was glad to hear the scratching of his pen to know that he had gone back to work. Now he couldn't see her tiny smile because she knew what that response meant. He didn't want her to be afraid of him. I made a new friend, Ravie thought happily; who would have guessed it would have been him?

It was a shame, however, that Ravie's blissful mood only lasted a moment. For, just then, Marcus opened the door.

Ravie, remembering to do her work, quickly whipped her head back down but was slightly shocked to hear Marcus suddenly say, "Um, King Jareth? There's someone here to see you?"

Rapidly getting up, King Jareth rushed out of the door, leaving Ravie to puzzle over what had just happened and then her haunting dream had returned. This caused Ravie to let out a sad sigh and attempt to do her work while wrestling with her demons.


	9. Chapter 9

**Oh dear, it has been a while since i last posted, hasn't it? I'm extremely sorry! Agh! Well, I guess it couldn't be helped, hope you guys aren't that mad. **

**Well, this chapter is a bit rough since I hadn't written in a while, but hopefully the writing voice/grammar isn't too bad. Hope you guys approve!**

**~mpenguin**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

"Well, I must say, Your Highness, that the Goblin Kingdom is certainly much more interesting then any other land I have ever set eyes on."

"A large compliment, as I am sure you have seen plenty of kingdoms." Jareth smirked, his eyes never leaving the pretty blonde Fae standing next to him.

Princess Cecelia let out a her light tinkle laugh, saying, "Oh yes, practically every Kingdom that the Underground has. But, as I had just said, the Land of the Labyrinth has to be the most fascinating. Really, your genius is so evident through-"

Jareth's attention wandered from that moment on. Yes, he knew it wasn't courteous for him not to hear the princess's speech, but having heard that similar monologue more times then he could count, Jareth found himself not caring much. No, his mind focused on more pressing matters.

Would this be his future bride?

She was pretty enough, that was for sure. Jareth thought, as he looked at her features as she rambled on about his Kingdom in an attempt to flatter him. Yes, she would do very well in that department, he thought. She was a tall woman, almost as tall as him, with pearl white smooth skin that was pleasuring to the eye. Her long blonde hair fell gracefully in ringlets that framed her gentle yet somehow strong face. Her eyes were a bright blue with a sharp almond shape that narrowed slightly as she looked over everything Jareth owned.

Princess Cecelia's personality wasn't even a problem either, to Jareth's surprise. She still had the horrible curse that all Royal Fae had the misfortune to have; she was extremely arrogant and shallow, though this trait was actually less then the average. She also possessed the rare ability to carry a conversation about things other then silks, cloth, and flattery.

However, though pleasant she may be, there were still problems with her.

She disliked his Kingdom; that to Jareth was evident. Not that he was much surprised to find so; Princess Cecelia's family was the royal family over the dwarves. The dwarfish lands had golden mountains, and jeweled forest; the looming stone walls of the Labyrinth that stretched towards the sky must look ugly and dull to her. Though, she was still a royal Fae, Jareth thought, she would still take the position of being his queen and do well, even if she dislikes how it looks. That problem could be solved only through time, he supposed.

Of course, the main issue against her was the fact that he still didn't love her.

"I'm sorry, am I boring you, Your Highness?" The princess asked as she noticed him looking off into the distance.

"Oh, of course not." Jareth replied quickly, putting aside his musing, "I was just thinking about some business. Please pardon me for being so rude as to not give my full attention to a lady as lovely as you."

Letting out another bell like laugh, she then said, "I am most curious to what you usually do, Your Highness."

"Well." Jareth smirked, sliding closer to her, "Usually, I am quite a bore and just sit in my dull study doing business all day long. But, if I ever have the good fortune as to get married to lovely lady, I don't think I would be able to go one day without seeing her."

"And what would you do when you are visiting your wife?" She whispered, a small smile playing around her lips.

Looking at her for a good moment, Jareth showed her the wickedest grin he was able to produce and took a step away from her.

"Come, let me show you more of the castle."

Smiling softly to herself, she followed him. They walked along, side by side, talking about things of little importance. It wasn't until a bit later when she asked:

"May I see your study? Or would that be an invasion of your privacy?"

"Not at all. Though I am quite curious on why you would want to see such a boring room."

"Oh, I'm just wondering what it looks like. With such a smart eccentric man, I simply can't imagine what the books or devices in the room would be."

"It's nothing very impressive." Jareth told her, "I am afraid I really add none of my own person to the room, it was the same as when my father was King, as well, as my grandfather. Well, here we are."

He held the door open for her and she stepped in, looking around. It pleased Jareth that she found his room impressive, as her eyes grew wide and her mouth was slightly gaped.

"Very handsome." She said, with a small smile.

"Thank you."

"It's a shame that you have to do all of that work by yourself." Princess Cecelia said with sympathy, gesturing over to stay of papers, "No wonder you never go out to any of the parties or balls. You should really hire someone to help you."

"It's fine, I'm quite content with working alone." Jareth said quickly, looking at his desk and seeing that there was no green eyed goblin in sight.

_Oh damn, she's spying again isn't she?_ Jareth thought angrily, trying to sight the goblin. _Perhaps she was hiding among the bookshelves?_

Princess Cecelia had noticed his sudden tighness and asked, "Do you not like me being in your study after all?"

"Not at all. I have never seen a more lovelier sight in my study" Jareth reflexively said, trying to spot the damn goblin before she heard anything else that she could use to embarrass him.

"Then, if I am not being too prying, may I ask what is troubling you?"

"You can never be too prying with me, princess. But I find that, since I have never brought a woman in my study before, I feel a bit unsure if it was the proper thing to do to show it to you."

"I won't ever tell." She said quietly taking a step closer to him.

Jareth suddenly felt extremely claustrophobic as she took one more step closer to him. _Her eyes are pretty_, he thought captivated as he looked at them some more. But, before he did anything, he shook himself out of his trance.

_There is no way that I am going to kiss her when Ravie might be in the room_, he thought stubbornly. The thought of it made him almost blush.

So, instead, Jareth grabbed Princess Cecelia's hand, and said with a charming smile, "Come, let me show you a more interesting part of the castle. How does the ballroom sound to you?"

After her quick approval, Jareth hurriedly guided Princess Cecelia out of the room, thinking venomous of the punishments he would give Ravie.

As the door shut with a soft thump behind them, an eye suddenly peeked up from the side of the desk. Seeing that they had left, Ravie reached her hand to the top of the desk to pull herself up.

Her breathing was heavy as she lifted her hand to look at it. She felt panic coursing through her veins and tried her best to keep herself from hyperventilating. Quickly, she whipped around and had to clasp her hand to her mouth to keep herself from screaming. For there, looking back at her, was her reflection. But the only problem was, that a tiny goblin wasn't what was staring back at her.

"Oh no, what has happened to me?" Ravie whispered, and broke into sobs when she heard that even her voice was not the squeaky goblin voice she had heard for so many years.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey! It's been a long time! Sorry for the lateness, I've been having a hard time concentrating when writing recently but I think I found a solution to it so hopefully chewing gum while writing will help me from wandering mind syndrome and I'll be able to pump out more chapters of Goblin quicker! Anyway, hope you like it, it's longer this time but I guess it makes up for how it's been since I last wrote.**

**Oh, and a quick apology to Angelic Aramina; I know I promised I would have this up before new year, but I guess not. Sorry about that! Hopefully I'll be better at keeping my word next time!**

**~Mpenguin**

**Oh, and as a side note, I forgot to put this in the story, but Ravie is still wearing clothes. Haha sorry, I guess I forgot about that detail XD**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

As Ravie attempted to calm herself, her brain ran over plans that she could do to change back into a Goblin. But her brain went on like a reel without tape, no plan floating into her mind whatsoever.

"Oh, come on! Come on! Come on! Stupid brain!" Ravie whimpered, brushing the tears away, though not fast enough to stop the flow, "Think! It wasn't so hard before! Think!"

No grand idea came to her except for this one.

Get out! Leave! Run away!

That train of thought, once it popped into her mind, screamed loudly enough to give her an awful pounding in her head. But, it didn't seem like a bad idea. Actually, it seemed almost like a genius idea, though Ravie hated the idea of running away.

_I just need to figure out what to do next, _she thought as she finally started to clam down._ Yeah, I just need to figure out what to do, but I can't do it here where King Jareth could appear at any moment. No, I need to… to… to… go to the Labyrinth?_

That idea was not as comforting as Ravie had hoped it would be. The Labyrinth was, after all, the Goblin King's domain; it was almost like her coming up to him and saying Hey! I'm that goblin you see everyday, you know, the one that annoys you to no end? But, what else could she do? Where else could she go? She probably couldn't figure out a way to leave the Goblin Kingdom here in the study before King Jareth found her anyways. The very least that Ravie could hope for was that in the Labyrinth, she could buy more time to think. All she had to do was pray that the Goblin King wouldn't be so desperate in looking for her that he would wish to see her in his magic crystals.

Wiping her tears for the last time and taking a deep breath, Ravie walked slowly towards the door and opened it just a crack. Peeking her head through, she saw that the hall was as empty as it usually was. Taking that as a good sign, Ravie was about to open the door when something suddenly whizzed by.

Quickly shutting it, Ravie whipped around and leaned heavily against the door, taking deep breathes. It may have just been her being superstitious, but Ravie suddenly remembered the rumor that Mimion always told her.

That the Labyrinth, as well as the Goblin Castle, was somehow magically bonded with the Goblin King, so that, whenever it felt that something has happened that its master was not aware of, it will always try to catch it and show it to him. Ravie had always laughed at that tale; who would have thought that the kingdom would act like a loyal puppy to the king? But now, with her nerves running on high, Ravie was probably willing to believe anything.

Taking another deep breath, Ravie then whispered, "Hey, um, Goblin Castle? I don't know if you can actually hear me but…" Squeezing her eyes shut she finished, "could you please let me go to the Labyrinth safely? I'm not an enemy, I swear! I just… I just… I wanna know what's going on…"

Ravie waited there for a couple of seconds and, of course, nothing happen. Thinking how stupid she was acting, though not saying anything out loud just in case, Ravie cracked open the door once more.

This time, everything was absolutely still. Taking a long breath, Ravie opened the door, and slid herself into the hallway.

Though she had run along the grounds of the castle for as long as she could remember, there was very little of the castle that Ravie actually knew about. She wouldn't have been able to guild you to the gardens, or to the dinning room, and she could probably just _barely_ get you to the kitchens. But to tell you any of the secrets passages, you'd be better off on you own.

And that's exactly the situation Ravie was in, she was entirely on her own.

Looking around rapidly, Ravie was such in a panic that she was about to burst into tears when suddenly she heard voices to her right. Taking that as a sign to go left, she quickly raced down the passageway. As she reached another fork in the halls, she skidded to a halt only to hear the voices coming the left. Confused, Ravie choose to race down the right passageway. It went on like that for a while; Ravie racing this way and that, wondering who in the heck kept following her around, until she almost crashed head first into it.

Ravie was flying down a secret passage way when suddenly, out of nowhere, the Goblin King's voice sounded from practically in front of her. Biting her hand to keep from screaming, Ravie froze, staring with wide eye at the silhouette in front of her.

_Oh no! No! No, no, no, no!_ She thought as she backed up, praying that he wouldn't see her. Her back suddenly hit the wall and she tried pressing herself as far back as she could go. That's when the floor beneath her suddenly vanished and Ravie let out a half strangled yelp and fell into the abyss.

Sliding down with nothing but darkness surrounding her, Ravie was pulled this way and that way, her head beginning to hurt from the sharp turn. About the same time that she was starting to wonder when the tunnels would stop, light suddenly flooded around her and Ravie flew out of the tunnel, landing painfully onto her back.

Groaning, Ravie slowly pulled herself up, trying her best to ignore the pain in both her head and back as she looked around her.

A jolt of recognition hit her and she exclaimed out loud, "The Bog!"

Sure enough, there it was. The Bog of Eternal Stench, oozing its horrid smelling sludge everywhere. _It's amazing that the stench hadn't hit me til now_, Ravie thought, covering her nose since the smell was so strong and awful that it was causing her nostril to burn.

Looking behind her, Ravie smiled as she saw the castle in the distance and sudden she said without thinking, "Thanks."

It was even more surprising when she heard a soft happy humming noise in her ear before it faded away, leaving her feeling very alone.

_Well_, Ravie thought, looking around her, _I guess the only way to go is forward_. So, taking a step, Ravie started trudging her way around the bog, being extremely careful not to slip in_._

_Oh, this human form is so bothersome_, Ravie thought, as she swayed in an attempt to keep her balance as she edged around a tree. As a goblin, she had less of her to worry about, but as a human, she has about 4.5 more inches to fall into the bog with. Not to mention that human feet were so much softer and easier to cut than Goblin feet, so walking on wood and through sharp grass cut and stung like no other.

Her footing finally landed on the more familiar feel of cobblestone and Ravie looked ahead of her, sighing with relief. All she had to do now was just walk over that bridge and she would be able to get away from this awful stink.

It was just her luck then, as she reached the bridge, when suddenly a ball of orange and red flew out of nowhere, blocking her path.

"Stop! Stop I say!" The ball screamed as it looked up at her and Ravie let out an inner moan as she saw who it was.

_Of course! How could I have forgotten!_ Ravie scolded herself. _The infamous anomic fox knight, Sir Didymus. How could I have forgotten about the knight that so many of the Guard Goblin's poke fun at? I mean, how many times have I heard Fifo tell those ridiculous stories about him?"_

"Why can't I pass?" Ravie asked, trying to sound polite but the stories of his absurdity kept popping up in her head, causing the lack of respect she would have given him otherwise.

"Without my permission, none may pass! It is my sworn duty!" The knight piped.

_Sworn duty? Since when did the Goblin King have any sworn knights?_ Ravie thought, repressing an eye roll.

"Come on! You have to let me pass! It's urgent!"

"I stand by with what I have said." Didymus said, "None may pass without my permission!"

Ravie let out a dejected sigh, and then looked down at her feet. They had turned a hue of flushed pink and tiny little slices were scattered about them, causing little droplets of blood to appear.

"My lady! What has happened to your feet?" Sir Didymus suddenly exclaimed, causing Ravie to jump and look around.

Seeing that there was no lady around anywhere, Ravie thought he was even more crazy until it clicked that he was talking to her, "Oh, I don't have any shoes…" Ravie told him, giving him a soft smile.

"Oh, is that my Lady's quest? Her reason to cross the bridge is to find her shoes?"

"That and plenty of other things." Ravie said with a sad laugh.

"Oh, would my lady give me the honor of hearing her tale?" He asked.

His eyes were so sincere that Ravie gave him a smile and said, "Oh, it's a simple story. I simply just don't know who or what I am anymore and I need to figure it out."

"Ah, a worthy quest." Sir Didymus said, nodding his head in approval.

"So, may I now cross?" Ravie said, hoping that that would do the trick.

"I'm sorry, my lady, but none may cross without my permission, that's what the Goblin King told me to do, and so I must do it." Sir Didymus said, his ears and tail drooping.

"I understand." Ravie sigh, when suddenly it snapped, "So, may I have it?"

"What?"

"Your permission to cross the bridge?"

"I-" Didymus faltered as he thought it over, then, looking up at her, said meekly, "Yes?"

"Oh, thank you!" Ravie grinned, giving him a swift hug and, as he moved aside, she dashed across the bridge.

"My lady!" Sir Didymus called, causing Ravie to look behind her, "Are you in need of assistance? On your quest?"

Thinking it over, Ravie then shouted back, "Thank you sir, but I'm afraid this is something I need to do on my own."

"Very well! But if you do need any help, I would be honored to supply it!" He said.

Waving farewell, Ravie then turned back around and started her way out of the Bog.

_I don't know what they were always talking about_, Ravie thought with a small smile, _Sir Didymus isn't that much of a loon. I like him, and I hope I run into him again._

Ravie went on for a while, until she had grown tired and decided to rest on a giant boulder. Looking around at the forest around her, she could see by the change of color in the sunlight that slipped through the leaves that it was sunset.

A sudden sadness took hold of Ravie as she suddenly thought about Mimion, Fifo, and Copperpot. _What would they do if they saw me now? Probably not believe it was me. Oh, how I wished I had someone to help! Maybe I should have asked Sir Didymus to come with me. And how long until King Jareth starts questioning where his helper Goblin went and decides to look into his crystal ball? Would I be out of the Labyrinth by then?_

As Ravie continued to look at the woods around her, it began to dawn on her that these woods looked familiar. _Really_ familiar.

Jumping to her feet, Ravie whipped around and nearly shook with frustration. These were the woods she and her friends had often played in; these were the woods right by the Goblin City. She was heading _towards_ the Goblin Castle, not _away_ from it!  
Fighting back the tears that threaten to shed, Ravie took a deep when she heard a sudden snap. Whipping her head around, she swore she saw a sudden flash of movement from the bushes in front of her.

Fright suddenly took a hold of her and Ravie swung around, racing towards the opposite direct. She barely paid attention to where she was going, as she leapt over the obstacles in her way. As the fright start to slip away, the first thing that Ravie started to notice was that everything around her seemed to be getting bigger.

Wondering what was going on, Ravie was going to start slowing down when, during mid-jump, the log beneath her suddenly became much larger and Ravie ending up tripping and falling face first into the ground.

Pulling herself up, Ravie looked down at her hands and noticed that they were no longer long, slender, smooth and a milky pale. Now they were short, rough, brownish grey and looked as if they were made from elephant skin.

She was a Goblin again.


	11. Chapter 11

**Thanks so much for the reviews/alerts! You guys are way too great, it warms my heart! Thanks for much for all the welcome back's I got, it means a lot. Well, here's a new chapters! Hope you like it!**

**~mpenguin**

**Oh, and for the few of you who pointed this out, no, Ravie was not running around without clothes. I just forgot to add that detail in the last chapter. Sorry about that! Haha, XD**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

It seemed like so long ago that Jojen had told her that he didn't know whether she was brave or stupid. Now Ravie found that those words were so much closer to the truth then she ever thought they would be.

She was terrified, by no doubt, that she would transform back into a human, and the much wiser choice would have been to just run away from the Labyrinth all together. Yet, there she was, standing at the threshold of her home with the darkness of midnight surrounding her. Taking a deep breath, she took hold of the doorknob and twisted the door open.

Her messy house was as equally dark as the street that Ravie had just left. But, living here her whole life, Ravie wasn't a fool to not know that Mimion had most likely left her spiked helmet at the right of the door and that her spear was lying on the left side of the table. That the broke glass cup shards were probably still scattered all around the sink from where Ravie had shattered it in the morning and that the broom that Mimion was suppose to clean the mess up with was most likely propped up on the counter right next to it.

Sighing, Ravie slowly navigated herself around the room and towards her bed, her feet still stinging from the pain she had put them through when she had been a human. She had only been thankful that her dress had somehow magically changed sizes with her (in her panic, she paid little attention to it and hadn't realize the embarrassment she might have had if it _hadn't_ transformed with her) and she had not harmed any other parts of her body, through her knees throbbed from tripping over the log.

Reaching her bed, she flopped down on it, and though she was exhausted from all the energy she had used up from running around and from all the stress, she had very little hope for sleep that night.

_What am I going to do?_ She thought hopelessly, staring at a blank space on the ceiling. She knew that that event could have been a one-time thing only, but she wasn't that big of a fool to block out the possibility that it could happen again. And next time, who knew if she would be lucky enough to be all alone in the room.

She could tell her friends about it, but all that would achieve was freaking out Mimion, causing Fifo to suspect that she had done something like read the Goblin King's magic books, and for Copperpot to tell her to go straight to Marcus or the Goblin King. Marcus would probably take her straight to the Goblin King, hoping to get her into trouble, and going straight to the Goblin King would… would…

Doing that, Ravie truthfully had no idea what would happen. He could just push away the fact that she had turn into a _frickin_ human and make sure it would never occur again by casting a spell on her, and that was that. There was also the possibility that he would become furious, assume that she had read one of his books, punish her, and then make sure she would never become a human again.

_But, at least then I would never have to go through anything like this ever again._ Ravie thought. Strangely, the thought was dissatisfying. _Come on, Ravie_, she thought, _even though the Goblin King has a temper, he is fair. And you can always find proof to show that you never even touched the magic books. Yeah, the dust! The dust could show that no one has touched those books in years..._

But still, the thought didn't make her happy.

Time flew by as Ravie laid awake, trying to figure out what was wrong with the plan or trying to figure out a new plan that would make her happier and before she was aware of it, sunlight had slipped through the cracks in the ceiling and the first few beams of sunlight shone from the window.

Frustrated at just lying there, Ravie swung herself off the bed and went about cleaning the house quietly. Around the time she had finished, no new idea popped into her head and she had become extremely exhausted, which was why, as Mimion woke up and said a cheerful good morning, Ravie growled:

"Good morning? It's more of a _bad_ morning!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Mimion said, deflating right away, "I didn't know you were angry…"

"How could you? You're not physic!" Ravie hissed.

An uncomfortable silence took over the room for a few minutes as Mimion got up and grabbed something to eat while Ravie was angrily sweeping a clean floor.

"Did…when did you come home?" Mimion asked in another attempted to make light conversation.

"You were asleep." Ravie said automatically, though she couldn't suppress the slight growl in her voice, "You must have gone to bed early."

"Yes, I must have…" Mimion mumbled.

Silence as thick as cream once again filled the room. It was so thick that Ravie was sure she would surely drown from it and she wished for Mimion to just leave her be. Mimion, however, didn't leave.

She shifted in her seat for a few minutes and then suddenly, without a warning, asked, "Did you have another bad dream."

That caused Ravie to snap and, furiously throwing the broom into a corner, she shouted, "Of course not! Now mind your own business!" and stomped out of the house.

As soon as the fresh air hit her face and Ravie found herself a few streets away from her house, she instantly regretted her outburst. She knew it wasn't Mimion's fault, for anything really. But, she just… she just didn't want the questions, or the prying, or the anything at all. Ravie was on her own for this and it would just be easiest if Mimion didn't try to butt herself into it.

_But, if you just tell the Goblin King, you'll never be on your own again. You'll never have to worry about this again and everything can just return to normal._ The voice of reason said in Ravie's head. _But, if it's the best thing to do, then why doesn't it feel right?_ Ravie thought with agony as she felt that unsettling feeling twisting her heart.

"Ravie!" Came a call from ahead of her, and Ravie looked up to see tiny Jojen jumping and waving to her.

Repressing the urge to groan, Ravie gave a strain smile and walked up to him, somewhat dragging her feet.

"Hey! Going to work?" Jojen ask in his cheery way, which made Ravie want to punch him.

"Of course, where else would I be going?" Ravie said, an edge to her voice.

Jojen, who either ignored or didn't hear it, then quickly asked, "Who was that Fae with him yesterday?"

"Huh?" Ravie grunted as she found herself unwillingly companying Jojen on the way to the castle.

"That lady Fae!" Jojen piped, "The pretty blonde one? Is she going to be the new queen?"

"How should I know?" Ravie said, keeping her snapping in check.

"Well, you do see him practically everyday! Surely you must have overheard something…" Jojen reasoned, looking over at her and then asking, "Is something wrong?"

"What gave you that impression?" Ravie said, somewhat quickly.

"It's just… you look… _tired_." Jojen finally said as he found the right word.

"I'm fine." Ravie sighed, then said quickly, "Oh, shoot! I forgot! I need to get to the King's Study really early this morning! I wasn't able to finish the papers! Bye Jojen!"

Without a response, Ravie dashed away from him. She felt bad from ditching him, though her reason wasn't exactly a lie. Ravie really did have to finish the papers, and she truly did forget about them. But, Jojen was only trying to help and he was worried about her. _First Mimion, now Jojen, I really am an idiot._ Ravie thought with a sigh as she appeared in front of the study.

Turning the door open, Ravie step inside and nearly froze with terror. She hadn't expected him to be here this early; he usually appeared an hour or two later then when she showed up to work. But there he was, his elbows propped up on the desk reading an unfinished document. Ravie jumped when the door behind her bang shut, causing the Goblin King to lower the page and look at her with an angry glare.

"Where were you?" The Goblin King growled, looking down at her with icy eyes.

Ravie just stood there, her brain racing with things to say. She hadn't planned on what to tell him, the thought hadn't appeared into her mind. Now, her brain was under a battle of great proportions as one side of her brain willed her to make up a random excuse while the other one just told her to tell him the truth.

While Ravie stood there mutely, frozen like a deer caught in headlights, Jareth's own anger began to ebb away. He had woken up early this morning happy from yesterday's events, only to suddenly have the almost kiss pop into his mind. That renewed his anger at his helper goblin and he decided to punish her for what she'd done. It was about time she did get a punishment; she had danced away from it too many times to count.

However, the rage Jareth had felt when he appeared in his study to find the documents unfinished was in a magnitude that he had not had in a very long time. As he sat down, waiting for the goblin to appear, his mind had raced with different punishments he could give her. He wouldn't throw her into the bog; she had made a valid point two months ago when she had first been employed on why he couldn't punish her that way. However, having to live there for a little while wouldn't be a bad punishment. For a week, he had thought because, though he would never admit this to anyone, he had grown to depend on her to get all his work finished on time. Yes, a week in the Bog would work, and what made it better was the idea of sending her to help that knight, Sir Didymus. With Ravie's intelligence, she would likely go half mad having to help that half-wit out, Jareth had thought with a nasty smirk.

When Ravie had appeared, however, and froze in her certain frighten state, was when Jareth realize it. The wild frighten look she had had when she saw him there had opened his eyes. He had come to expect too much of her and so he had forgotten that she was a _goblin_. Even though she had strange green eyes and was cleverer then most, it didn't erase the fact that she was a goblin; and like any ordinary goblin, she wasn't fully dependable.

"Never mind." The Goblin King's voice suddenly cut through the air, pulling Ravie out of her thoughts, "You just couldn't focus. Well then, no use fuming about it, come and finish the papers you hadn't yesterday."

The false accusation rang in her ears and Ravie suddenly heard herself say, "No, I-", but she stopped right there.

She knew that the truth would get out eventually, and that it was wiser to just get on with it, but at that moment, she understood why she didn't want to tell him. Ravie wasn't afraid of the punishment, she was afraid of never going through anything like that again.

Because, in all honesty, she wanted to be human again.

"I what?" King Jareth said with impatience.

"Nothing." Ravie said, her voice sounding miles away, "You're right. I couldn't focus and so I bounded away to have fun. I'm sorry, I'll try and not do it again."

"Very well." Jareth grunted and Ravie slowly approached the table, resuming her work but not feeling the same as she had felt when sitting on the desk all those times before.

Not, Ravie was certain she would never feel the same ever again.

* * *

**Sorry if Ravie seems out of character, but I figured she would pretty stressed out and angry so I wrote her this way. If you didn't like, don't worry, she probably won't be this way again...**

**~mpenguin :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**So here it is! Yay, i was able to keep my promise! Since summer's here, my life should be less busy so hopefully I will get a chapter up every week. Thanks for all the interest! :)**

**~mpenguin**

* * *

**Chapter 12**

The next week past Ravie by as if she were like Atlas and keeping the pressure of the world on her tiny shoulders, its weight crushing and pushing her until she was extremely close to snapping, if she hadn't snapped already. Ravie became possessed by extremely irritable and agitated moods whenever anyone was around, except for the Goblin King, which was only because she was trying to be extra careful around him. She was only too thankful that he was much too interested with that Fae Princess to even do his work, much less notice the horrible moods that seem to have taken over his Helper Goblin. So the Goblin King was perfectly oblivious to the frazzled Goblin.

Ravie's friends, however, were not as luck as to escape Ravie's fierce wrath.

Poor Mimion, Fifo, and Copperpot had to deal with Ravie's growls and snaps when they themselves had done nothing to deserve it, and which Ravie miserly acknowledged. She was sorry for her behavior when she was alone and wanted to make things better, but whenever they were around her, she just wanted them to go away. Because they were everything Ravie was not; they knew who and what they were and Ravie was questioning everything she knew.

And that's why the secret put so much misery on the poor little Goblin; it wasn't the secret itself, but the questions that came along with it.

Why did she become human? Why did she turn back into the Goblin? What did her dreams mean? Were Noah and Stacy actual people she had met when she was human? Was she actually human, not Goblin? Did she live in the Aboveworld? Is that why she has green eyes? Then how did she come down here? Why was she now Goblin?

These were common questions that attack and brought so much stress to Ravie and she wondered if she would ever know the answers. It wasn't until one night, a week and a half after the transformation had occurred, did Ravie have the sudden realization that seem to make all those torturing questions cease.

The Goblin King knows.

At first, Ravie was so shocked by the thought that she quickly waved it away; after all, how could King Jareth possibly know? He didn't even know she had turned human! But the thought was persistent in being known and continue to invade Ravie's mind until it became the only thing she thought about, and it dawned upon Ravie that it must be right.

King Jareth was the _Goblin_ King; he ruled the goblins. Surely he would know if a human were here in Goblin form, wouldn't he? And now that she thought about it, how did new Goblins come here anyways? Goblins didn't reproduce, they couldn't hold attachments or think about anything like that. Goblins practically had the mindset of children, which is why they had such short attention spans. So how was it that new Goblins would just appear?

The conspiracy that this realization brought caused Ravie's blood to pump wildly in her veins until finally she bolt up from her bed and screamed in her head, _What's going on here?_" But her mind couldn't come up with any other thought, only repeated with certainly that the Goblin King knows! The Goblin King knows!

As soon as Ravie's blood began to cool, she made herself climb back into bed, and as she lay there, she thought with determination: _If the answer lies with the Goblin King_,_ then I'm going to find out. One way or another, I'm going to figure out what's going on. _And with that, Ravie closed her eyes and eventually went off into an uneasy sleep.

When she awoke the next morning, her realization was not far from her mind and the knowledge of what she was going to do today made her feel sick in the stomach. She got up slowly, as if all her limbs were made of lead, and grabbed something to eat. Mimion had left early, as was become a habit she was gaining lately, probably in hopes to avoid Ravie's presents. Sighing with disgust at how awful she had turned, Ravie could only shove a little bit of bread down her throat before leaving the house.

She was making her way slowly up to the castle when she heard a familiar voice call out, "Ravie, wait!"

If this was earlier in the week, Ravie probably would have ignored the voice and hurried on, but the thought that had come to her last night had a soothing effect on her and so Ravie stopped, and turn around to see that Copperpot was waddling quickly in an attempt to catch up to her.

"Hi Copperpot." Ravie said, slightly in shock. She felt as if she had not seen him in months, though she had just seen him yesterday.

"Oh, goody! You wait for me! Copperpot grinned, and Ravie guiltily saw relief cross his open and caring face.

"Of course I'd wait for you!" Ravie said, attempting, finally, to fix her bad behavior, "That's what friends do."

"Oh, cause you no have been lately…" He mumbled, and looked up with caution to see if he had offended her.

Ignoring the fact that he had slightly offended her, though what he said was true, Ravie smiled and said, "Well, let's go to work."

They walked in silence for the rest of the trip, though not in a comfortable silence. Copperpot was still tense, wondering if he had upset her, and Ravie was upset at herself for having injured her friend so much. When they had gotten to the point of the road where the two would split, Ravie quickly turn to Copperpot and gave him a big hug.

Surprised at this sentiment, Copperpot did not return it, but smiled his big toothy smile when she pulled away and said, "Oh, goody! Ravie back!"

All Ravie did was wave good-bye and give him a strain smile. _No, I'm never going to be back_, Ravie thought gloomy as she then hurried down the corridor towards the King's Study.

Her heart pumped heavily in her little chest as Ravie stood at the doorway, taking a deep breath before she opened the door. When the door slowly creaked open, Ravie peeked her head into the room and saw, with relief, that the Goblin King was not inside. Creeping into the room, Ravie softly shut the door behind her and was overwhelmed by the shelves of books that piled up and up, because Ravie was certain that, if the Goblin King knew anything about Ravie's condition, the answer would be in the books. The magic books. Only, where would she start?

Attempting to figure out which self to look at first, but having no logical way of doing so, Ravie gave up her stalling and just decided to get going with it. She hurried stealthy over to the nearest bookshelf on the left, just the way that Mimion and Fifo had taught her a long time ago and, reaching it, Ravie gave herself a giant push and climbed over the first wooden bar.

It went on for a while, Ravie moving around in all sorts of strange ways in attempt to get herself to the next shelf. She had no idea how much time had past, but in what felt like hours to her, Ravie finally scrambled to one of the topmost shelves and, heaving herself over the wooden bar, let herself lay there for a moment, trying to breath.

Looking to see how much she still had left to go, Ravie jumped in surprise as she slowly recognized which shelf she was at. Standing up quickly, Ravie hurried over to familiar looking black book and, slightly pulling it forward, read the purple worded title, _The Elemental Importance In Magic_.

"Hmph", Ravie mumbled to herself, as she looked past the book and saw the little hole in the wall that she had used those few months ago, when she had first entered the King's Study, "It seems that I'm back where I had started…"

While pondering whether or not that was a good omen, Ravie jolted as she suddenly heard the doorknob of the study wiggle. In a panic, Ravie quickly scurried behind the book and, after pulling it to seem that no one had moved it, Ravie was safely out of view.

Not a moment too soon, for as soon as Ravie fell back into the hole, did the door creak open.

"Oh, I do so like your study, Your Highness." Came the tinkling feminine voice of someone Ravie didn't recognize.

"I am so very pleased that you do." Came, to Ravie's frustration, the much more familiar voice of the Goblin King's.

"But this large pile of work! Oh, how do you ever find time to do it all, especially now when you seem to be having other interests."

Her light flirty tone caused Ravie to have the urge to laugh, as well as gag at the same time.

"Well, I have my ways."

King Jareth's flirty tone would have most definitely made Ravie laugh, if it wasn't for the fact that she was hiding in a hole in the wall and that, from her highly trained ears, she was aware that there was a slight strain to them. The strain that usually meant that Ravie was in big trouble.

"Yes, and this large collection of magic books! One of the largest I have ever seen! Though I'm certain you do not need much training, for I have heard much about your natural talents."

"You flatter me."

"But it is true! Is it not?"

"I highly doubt I can say anything on that subject without sounding arrogant."

_Oh please_, Ravie thought to herself as she rolled her eyes, _if anyone comes within one mile of you they could see the arrogance you have about your magic_.

"That has just reminded me, I have heard a rumor recently. About the Goblin Kings." Came the female Fae's tone, still flirty, but not as light as before. Rather, to Ravie's ear, there was a hint of caution in it.

In fact, the whole change of dynamic in the room was obvious as a sudden tenseness arose as Jareth asked, "Yes?"

"About how the Goblin King gets his subjects."

At this Ravie stiffed and leaned her head much closer to the book.

"And what is that?" Jareth ask his voice sounding amused and smug, as if he had known this topic was coming all along.

"That-" The Fae Princess faltered, her confidence suddenly vanished for a second, before she continued, "That the Goblin Kings take human babies and transforms them into goblins."

Ravie froze in shock. She couldn't believe in what she just heard. She wouldn't believe in what she just heard. Her. Taken. As a baby. By _him_

"And what do _you_ think about that?" The Goblin King asked, his voice still full of amusement.

"Well, I think it is ludicrous!" The Fae Princess laughed, and than uncertainly added on "Well, is it not?"

"Of course." The Goblin King laughed.

"So, it is _not_ true?" The Fae Princess asked, trying to get the facts straight.

"My dear," The Goblin King said in a lowed voice, "It is what you think it is."

With that, the room fell silent, and in a moment or two, the door once again opened and shut. But Ravie didn't know about that, no, she was already running down through the passageway in the wall, her mind buzzing about what she had just heard.


End file.
